Nine U.S. Senators Visit Beijing

On Friday, August 11, a group of US Senators, led by Senator Stevens (R-AK) and Senator Inouye (D-HI), held a press conference with Chinese and Western media.  The senators traveled to China to attend official meetings of the US-China Interparliamentary Group, the official dialogue mechanism between the US Senate and the National People's Congress.  The group was founded in 2004 by Senators Stevens and Inouye and was authorized into US law after the two met with a Chinese delegation, led by Sheng Huaren, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding. 

This was the third round of talks - US Senators went to Beijing in August 2004; Chinese to US in June 2005.  During their Interparliamentary meetings, they discussed bilateral relations; trade and investment; intrenational security and energy issues.  The US delegation will also paid courtesy visits to Chinese leadership in Beijing and looked at plans for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  The ultimate goal of the visit was to look for areas of cooperation and enhance bilateral dialogue.